The Valkyrie Class (and her sister class, the Paddington Class Scouts) were short lived designs, phased out after successful concurrent development of the Saladin Class. After testing of both designs, it was determined that for a ship of this size a single warp nacelle could provide comparable output with greater efficiency and for lower construction costs.

This upset many of those who had served on the testing of the Valkyrie and Paddington classes, who felt that the loss of efficiency was more then compensated for by the edge that these ships had in range and ability to maintain speed. They felt that their ships were a superior design loosing out to what they saw as the "budget version." Alas, as Starfleet Command threw its support behind the single nacelle designs, whatever Valkyrie and Paddington class ships were near completion were finished but those still in early stages of construction were cancelled, their hulls retrofitted to conform to Hermes and Saladin designs.

History has somewhat vindicated the Valkyrie and Paddington classes, showing them to be tough and very capable vessels that have served the fleet with distinction. This caused Starfleet to later reconsider similar duel-nacelle Scout and Destroyer designs. Meanwhile, those Valkyrie and Paddington Class ships surviving to the present day have been refitted to match current fleet technology.

The refit of the Valkyrie Class in particular provided an interesting opportunity to designers who were keen to test a new structure to contain photon torpedo launchers. The design, which placed a trio of launch tubes directly beneath the bridge superstructure, proved successful and has since been incorporated into the newer Pike Class of Destroyers.